7H Build for my Warrior: Advice and/or Rate?

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Edit: Been changing my build based on comments and testing. Current build is now in this (same) thread here:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...9&postcount=15

and current questions are in this (same) thread here:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...9&postcount=20

Thanks everyone for the advice!

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So I've been doing okay with the following setup, just took Rotscale on hard earlier. I think I could still do a lot better.

Me DS/SY Warrior:
OQITEZKbHyw6qYxR0jvaqJmUuEA

Razah Channelling Rit with Resto backup:
OACjEyiLpRXTlTSTTOdiYMVTLTA

Xandra Offensive Communing Rit:
OAWjMMgMJPO7v5m7sl5i2WTnJA

Livia MM with Prot:
OANDUstvRyBUBbh4BKgVV1DBEA

Master of Whispers
Curses Nec with Prot:
OANDY8x/I1cZYJfCis71TAB

Olias
Resto Healer:
OAhiYwhMZtVVNOV9wJKNNMN5AA

Nogru
Illusion Mes:
OQhDAWwTSvArAIg5ZEBZA9AXMA

Gwen
Domination Mes:
OQJUASBPS8M0gcARY6lB6B3UZAA

GW team builder is telling me the link is no longer active, so I can't make this as pretty as I'd like, but I did make everything clickable links.

I'm think my illusion mesmer needs the most improvement. Gwen probably needs help too. I also think the classes I've chosen seem to be working well together(meaning I'm doing okay with no monk or paragon), I'm just not sure which skills to switch out and which skills to put in.

Marty Silverblade

Marty Silverblade

Administrator

Join Date: Jun 2006

*Needs SoH.
*I'd prefer Brawling Headbutt over PI.
*Essence Strike is meh. Damage is meaningless and the energy return is negligible. Swap it for Spirit Siphon if you want the energy. If you're speccing Resto I'd fit in PwK too.
*Two copies of Prot Spirit isn't particularly helpful. I'd swap the one on the MM to SoA.
*There are better options than Icy Veins. I tend to throw in Pain of Disenchantment, though SS or Feast of Corruption work too (that said, I don't usually run curses elites).
*Some hex removal would be nice, though whether you need it will be dependant on the area.

mathiastemplar

mathiastemplar

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2008

Denmark

Jade Reapers [JD]

W/

I would run Shared Burden over Ineptitude - I find heroes doens't run Ineptitude too good.

Strength of Honor would also be a good idea.

Drop PI for Asuran Scan, since you're playing Melee.

Anaraky

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2010

Agree with everything Marty said, but regarding your mesmers: You have too many interrupts, when you have that many heroes tend to fire several at once thus wasting energy instead of gaining it. This goes doubly with Panic, look into Waste Not, Want Not or Drain Delusions. Heroes also don't use the Wastrels spells in a great manner, you can use Spiritual Pain as a substitute.

My 2c.

jensyea

jensyea

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2009

The Underworld

Mo/

Dont use SS with mesmers, FoC or pain or disenchantment works good. Besides that just what marty said.

But even if you don't change it, you'll be able to roll trough most areas without trouble.

Olle

Olle

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Aug 2008

Ign: Miniature Julia

Teh Academy[PhD]

W/

Regarding the MM, sure they make an great wall, but walls dont do damage.
remove Blood of the master and add in Death Nova!
I feel guilty using Strength of Honor. Yes, it's fun to do more damage but I'd rather have a stronger all around group than a group designed to make my character more fun.

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post *I'd prefer Brawling Headbutt over PI. Took this advice but by taking out 'finish him' instead. Brawling Headbutt is working out really nice. I figure knockdowns aren't that important, since they don't actually interrupt, but it's fun to get some damage out of my extra adrenaline.

Wanted to keep PI since it's so important for blowing up mages when they do manage to get a spell off (despite my mesmers.) Maybe I don't really need it though in Gwen and Nogru do their jobs.

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post *Essence Strike is meh. Damage is meaningless and the energy return is negligible. Swap it for Spirit Siphon if you want the energy. If you're speccing Resto I'd fit in PwK too. I do want the energy which is why I have it. I imagine having a second PwK might be worth some changes.

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post *Two copies of Prot Spirit isn't particularly helpful. I'd swap the one on the MM to SoA. I'm guessing this is cause the enemies often focus on one character at a time? I don't see them both going off together often, so I think this is a great suggestion.

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post *There are better options than Icy Veins. I tend to throw in Pain of Disenchantment, though SS or Feast of Corruption work too (that said, I don't usually run curses elites). My mesmers get a bit of their energy from removing disenchantments, so I don't want to toss PoD in. Feat of Corruption sounds weak to me since the recharge is 20 and the damage isn't so high, wouldn't Icy Veins be a lot stronger than this?

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
*Some hex removal would be nice, though whether you need it will be dependant on the area. Took your advice and squeezed this on Gwen.

Thanks for all the advice!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kajusbonus View Post
Regarding the MM, sure they make an great wall, but walls dont do damage.
remove Blood of the master and add in Death Nova! I'm scared of letting go of the defensive wall, but I'll definitely give it a try. Does the hero AI work well with Death Nova? I guess if the weakest minions were the ones targeted this could be really good.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jensyea View Post
Dont use SS with mesmers, FoC or pain or disenchantment works good. Besides that just what marty said. I originally had SS but learned not to, especially with the double mesmers. Mostly I want curses for things like mark of pain, barbs and shadow of fear, not for the elite which I guess causes a dilemma.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraky View Post
Agree with everything Marty said, but regarding your mesmers: You have too many interrupts, when you have that many heroes tend to fire several at once thus wasting energy instead of gaining it. This goes doubly with Panic, look into Waste Not, Want Not or Drain Delusions. Heroes also don't use the Wastrels spells in a great manner, you can use Spiritual Pain as a substitute.

My 2c. I hadn't heard of this before. Does this only come into play when the interrupts are spread between more than one hero? Like one enemy begins casting and the two different heroes both interrupt the same skill? That makes a lot of sense. I've seen waste not want not on a lot of skill bars and it didn't seem as good to me, but now I'll add it. Drain delusions sounds like it might et rid of stuff I need though. Thanks!

What's there to feel guilty about? It's AI lol. You'll generally be better off by customising your team to what you need rather than not prioritising synergy. For reference, [email protected] Smiting, assuming a fast attacking weapon and a 33% IAS adds 20.8DPS. That's definitely worth bringing if you can fit it in.

Quote:
Took this advice but by taking out 'finish him' instead. Brawling Headbutt is working out really nice. I figure knockdowns aren't that important, since they don't actually interrupt, but it's fun to get some damage out of my extra adrenaline.

Wanted to keep PI since it's so important for blowing up mages when they do manage to get a spell off (despite my mesmers.) Maybe I don't really need it though in Gwen and Nogru do their jobs.
Eh. Not sure I'd agree with that. I'm not a fan of PI. You can perma KD anything you like with DSlash so tough targets aren't going to get anything off anyway (so it's kind of like an interrupt, probably better), regardless of what else is in your team. The ease of suppressing foes nowadays really makes it hard to recommend a place for PI.

Quote:
I do want the energy which is why I have it. I imagine having a second PwK might be worth some changes.
Essence Strike doesn't provide energy though. Some numbers:

Assuming 16 Channeling (doesn't matter if this applies to you, it's the best case scenario) and that ES is used on recharge (which probably isn't the case).

ES returns 10e (5e profit) every 9 seconds, which is 0.556e/second.
1 energy pip is worth 1e every 3 seconds, which is 0.333e/second.
So ES is equivalent to about 1.5 energy pips, which really isn't remarkable.

Spirit Siphon returns 16e (11e profit) every 3 seconds, which is 3.667e/second.
1 energy pip is worth 1e every 3 seconds, which is 0.333e/second.
So SS is equivalent to about 11 energy pips, which is 7.33 times more effective in terms of energy management than ES.

In fairness, SS doesn't always perform optimally due to the energy level of the spirit siphoned, but when it's that much more effective it more than makes up for it.

Quote: You've convinced me! I'm trying PwK in it's place right now, testing to see if I have the energy. Is the damage lost while holding onto the urns for spells like PwK worth considering?

Quote:
My mesmers get a bit of their energy from removing disenchantments, so I don't want to toss PoD in. Feat of Corruption sounds weak to me since the recharge is 20 and the damage isn't so high, wouldn't Icy Veins be a lot stronger than this? Fair enough on PoD. FoC is more a playstyle thing. EFGJack likes it because it fits for him. It probably isn't worth using unless you're working to optimising it. That doesn't change the fact IV is unimpressive though. Remember it's cold damage, so it's armor respecting. Try thinking outside the box.

Quote:
I'm scared of letting go of the defensive wall, but I'll definitely give it a try. Does the hero AI work well with Death Nova? I guess if the weakest minions were the ones targeted this could be really good. There's some conflicting advice here. Decide whether you want a Minion Master (MM) who aims to have powerful minions or a Minion Bomber (MB) who aims to create an exploding minion wall. An MM should never have Death Nova on their bar. They'll be working on raising more expensive minions (bone fiends and vamp horrors), keeping them alive, and hitting Order of Undeath when they can. An MB will be raising bone minions and using them as targets for Death Nova.

Quote:
Haven't tried this since it changed. Being able to hit more would help me keep DS up, so this sounds like a good idea if I can get away without the caster nuke. I definitely wouldn't say you should staple AScan to your bar like you used to. Imo it's useful where there's a lot of melee hate, but there are better things to do with PvE skill slots, especially now that we've got 7 heroes and lots of space for cond/hex removal.

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
What's there to feel guilty about? It's AI lol. You'll generally be better off by customising your team to what you need rather than not prioritising synergy. For reference, [email protected] Smiting, assuming a fast attacking weapon and a 33% IAS adds 20.8DPS. That's definitely worth bringing if you can fit it in.
The mana upkeep while the enchatment is active gives me second thoughts. I do use a sword, but getting to 10 smite with one of these heroes would take a bit away from something else as well. I could get rid of someone and just toss in the RoJ smiter with it, but I don't think it's worth doing something that drastic. Splinter weapon is a better fit.

I kind of see my warrior's role as protective (keeping SY up) and don't think too much about damage. (I wish I had done Paragon instead, so I could protect and use command spells for the spirits, but I'm quite established in faction and other things.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post Eh. Not sure I'd agree with that. I'm not a fan of PI. You can perma KD anything you like with DSlash so tough targets aren't going to get anything off anyway (so it's kind of like an interrupt, probably better), regardless of what else is in your team. The ease of suppressing foes nowadays really makes it hard to recommend a place for PI.
I definitely doubt I have the timing for that knockdown trick, but I guess I could practice it. Would there be time to hit SY too under those circumstances? In any case, I have lots of adrenaline, and I'll keep the headbutt regardless.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post Essence Strike doesn't provide energy though. Some numbers:

Assuming 16 Channeling (doesn't matter if this applies to you, it's the best case scenario) and that ES is used on recharge (which probably isn't the case).

ES returns 10e (5e profit) every 9 seconds, which is 0.556e/second.
1 energy pip is worth 1e every 3 seconds, which is 0.333e/second.
So ES is equivalent to about 1.5 energy pips, which really isn't remarkable.

Spirit Siphon returns 16e (11e profit) every 3 seconds, which is 3.667e/second.
1 energy pip is worth 1e every 3 seconds, which is 0.333e/second.
So SS is equivalent to about 11 energy pips, which is 7.33 times more effective in terms of energy management than ES.

In fairness, SS doesn't always perform optimally due to the energy level of the spirit siphoned, but when it's that much more effective it more than makes up for it.
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
Fair enough on PoD. FoC is more a playstyle thing. EFGJack likes it because it fits for him. It probably isn't worth using unless you're working to optimising it. That doesn't change the fact IV is unimpressive though. Remember it's cold damage, so it's armor respecting. Try thinking outside the box. I guess Divert Hexes might be worth it vs the right crowds if I put a bit more into protection (meaning bringing it to 4). With Curses and Soul Reaping as my main attributes, there aren't too many good choices. I'll try to stay away from IV though.

1 energy pip isn't a big deal if it's in an appropriate place. I ran an N/Mo smiter a while back and it could maintain 3 copies and spam Judge's Insight and RoJ (as well as cheap stuff like Smite Hex/Cond) on recharge. You just need to find a place for it. The SoS could work. Another option would be to drop Putrid Bile from the MM in exchange for SoA, then put some smites on the curser. Yet another option would be dropping the N/Rt healer for an E/Mo.

Splinter Weapon is massively powerful, but it's not mutually exclusive with SoH.

Quote:
I kind of see my warrior's role as protective (keeping SY up) and don't think too much about damage. (I wish I had done Paragon instead, so I could protect and use command spells for the spirits, but I'm quite established in faction and other things.)
If you don't care about damage, War probably wasn't the best choice. Anyway, you don't need to play defensively in order to keep SY up. FGJ+auto attacking will do the job. Remember, the best way for you to protect your team is to simply kill everything.

Quote:
I definitely doubt I have the timing for that knockdown trick, but I guess I could practice it. Would there be time to hit SY too under those circumstances? In any case, I have lots of adrenaline, and I'll keep the headbutt regardless.
-It's not really a timing thing. Hit DSlash twice then BH if you need it. SY whenever you need it. It's not like you'll instantly wipe if you don't manage to suppress every single thing. Part of being a good player is recognising the situation and how people/AI are likely to react, so knowing when to fire a KD and whatnot is worthwhile.

Quote:
You've convinced me! I'm trying PwK in it's place right now, testing to see if I have the energy. Is the damage lost while holding onto the urns for spells like PwK worth considering? The thing with PwK is that it's an item spell. You won't get staff benefits (i.e, the energy) while holding it. I'd still try to fit in some e management to ensure there's energy when it's needed. The damage from ES is trivial (to be specific, it's 5 DPS assuming that it's cast on recharge and armor takes off 25%).

Quote:
I guess Divert Hexes might be worth it vs the right crowds if I put a bit more into protection (meaning bringing it to 4). With Curses and Soul Reaping as my main attributes, there aren't too many good choices. I'll try to stay away from IV though. Actually Divert Hexes isn't a bad option. I thought it was Divine too but evidently not. Might want to look at other options for low hex areas. It's worth pumping Prot up past 4 though. At least a 12/11/6 split. It's a shame the 3 hex breakpoint is at 12. If you want a cleaning elite, Empathic Removal (and Signet of Removal, to a lesser extent) is another good option.

Quote:
I like the defensive nature of the MM, though I like Aura of the Lich for the instant army in the middle of the battle effect. I'm assuming having strong minions without OoU on the bar is worth it enough just for defensive purposes. I'll keep away from Nova unless I decide to go bombing. I've really only run bombers to any meaningful extent so it's hard for me to make judgements, but given how much damage OoU provides I'd question what you're getting in exchange. +1 Death, stronger horror production, probably less energy pressure, and definitely less health pressure. Play around with it perhaps and see what you think.

kaylaaka

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2007

I would use PI over Panic.

if you are adamant on using panic then make space for Frustration on your illusions bar. (100 damage per skill interupt or 50 damage per interupt stacks quite alot)

The problems i have with ANY non necro healer is when ran with a MM on the battle field they will waste a lot of energy to heal the minions.

Big fan of direct hexes specially in EoTn.


Remember that with PwK or any item spell makes your heroes tend to be more defensive.
I'd remove recuperation and put PwK on both healers since they use it wisely doing a aoe spike from ele bosses.

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by kaylaaka View Post
I would use PI over Panic.
The problems i have with ANY non necro healer is when ran with a MM on the battle field they will waste a lot of energy to heal the minions.
This is something I should probably understand. So the main profession affects how the hero uses the skill bar? Or is it just that the necro healers have other stuff to do (rather than just healing) so they don't spam heal spells at minions all day?

----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post 1 energy pip isn't a big deal if it's in an appropriate place. I ran an N/Mo smiter a while back and it could maintain 3 copies and spam Judge's Insight and RoJ (as well as cheap stuff like Smite Hex/Cond) on recharge. You just need to find a place for it. The SoS could work. Another option would be to drop Putrid Bile from the MM in exchange for SoA, then put some smites on the curser. Yet another option would be dropping the N/Rt healer for an E/Mo.
I've been experimenting with dropping out the N/Rt healer with other classes, including an E/Me third mesmer and a P/Mo. I've been using the P/Mo in that Nec slot a lot lately, since it is very nice on the spirits though with "go for the eyes" and "anthem of envy". . Perhaps on the P/Mo SoH would work, though with a need for leadership (for energy) command (for skills) and spear mastery (to attack) there might not be that many points left for smite. If I can squeeze it in at say rank 9 smite, would it be worth it for the 17 damage? Even with splinter, the 17 damage would only apply to one of the opponents being hit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post If you don't care about damage, War probably wasn't the best choice.
True. I chose it long ago and I'm at 38/50 on the GW Calculator for the HoM so I'm sticking with it as my main (and I guess I do benefit from Raptor farming which is nice during holidays.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
The thing with PwK is that it's an item spell. You won't get staff benefits (i.e, the energy) while holding it. I'd still try to fit in some e management to ensure there's energy when it's needed. The damage from ES is trivial (to be specific, it's 5 DPS assuming that it's cast on recharge and armor takes off 25%). ES is gone for good. I have been talked out of it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
Actually Divert Hexes isn't a bad option. I thought it was Divine too but evidently not. Might want to look at other options for low hex areas. It's worth pumping Prot up past 4 though. At least a 12/11/6 split. It's a shame the 3 hex breakpoint is at 12. If you want a cleaning elite, Empathic Removal (and Signet of Removal, to a lesser extent) is another good option. I've been going between my P/Mo and my curses Nec for who gets to play party cleaner with their elite. I really don't have an elite I'm happy with for my P/Mo either which means I always end up with one character (of those two) with an elite I don't like.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade View Post
I've really only run bombers to any meaningful extent so it's hard for me to make judgements, but given how much damage OoU provides I'd question what you're getting in exchange. +1 Death, stronger horror production, probably less energy pressure, and definitely less health pressure. Play around with it perhaps and see what you think. I've switched over to bombers, especially after hearing that healers waste too much energy healing minions. I did consider the tradeoff from OoU, and I still like Aura of the Lich better when I go defensive with my minions.

One thing I would like is a way to fit disease into the picture. I have weakness and cracked armor (curses Nec) blindness (illusion mesmer) poison and bleeding (death nec) and deep wound and burning (when I use P/Mo.) I think that disease would be a great addition, especially when I'm doing something like Glint's, where the is no condition removal. I'm noticing there isn't any cheap way to do disease. Putrid Flesh is not recommended for heroes in the description (says they don't use it well.) Rotting Flesh is costly and with a 3 sec recharge, not what I want on my energy taxed death nec (responsible for minion bombing -and- keeping aegis and prot spirit going.) Tainted Flesh also seems like an energy and cast time drain since the hero tries to put it on everyone which leaves Virulence. Virulence is not bad, but I have the other conditions and the duration is low unless Death magic is high. (Thus it might be hard to put on my curses nec or P/Mo.) One option might be signet of infection in the pain inverter slot on my main though I do have to wait until the bleeding is already applied. Any suggestions about the best way to maintain disease might be helpful as well.

PurpleFlamingo

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2010

Hopped Off The Plane At [LAX]

R/

I went through and started to change some stuff around but it ended up turning into something very similar to the build I run. I've posted that team build below. If you're intent on running an SoGM rit, go for it. The main thing I changed was taking out a bunch of excessive healing in your original build. One thing I've been thinking about changing in the build below is changing Smite Hex for Smite Condition. FoC or PoD are both stronger than IV on your curses necro, imo.



War - OQASEZKT9F7gTNGW0kieXF8V
ESurge - OQNEI8gg2ycCmemuhQOgIkBQj
Panic - OQNEI8gg2yQDmemuhQOgIkBQj
Ineptitude - OQlkYeDYADg0LwKQeGCIJwyXGwOG
AotL Prot - OANDY4rFTyBVBKgoBbh3V1DBE
FoC Curses - OAljYqG4BPXC2wnwOYJwx14dM
IV Resto - OAhiYwh8UzqqSzJX0sZPMHn
SoS Smite - OAOj4wiM5MXzyZ10bixYmuk5B

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Since I'm still begging for advice, here's my current build with the changes applied. (Also my 1st attempt at using Pawned.)

loopysnoopy

loopysnoopy

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2010

England

The Ministery Of Cookies (MC)

W/Mo

Sofar with the 7h update many heros don't have a saved spot of my team rosta no more

Atm this is what I'm using in elona Vq's (HM) and (HM) dungeons too. Not that much of a pit fall but its obtained me R1 Surviour easy...


KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Or to phrase things better:

1. Is Strength of Honor worth the cost, and where to put it?
If I do spend points in smite on a character, is it worth it to take smite hex for hex removal and maybe RoJ as the elite (if it's the paragon or curse nec, the only two characters with an elite I'm not happy with.) I know RoJ causes scattering, which might be really bad given that I have so many AoE mesmer hexes and effects. It's probably best to keep away from anything that scatters foes. I just like the idea of putting a better elite on one of those two characters. (I also realize I'd have to change the curse nec's healing from Rit healing to Monk healing, but the price might be worth it.) Also if I add smite hex I won't need a cleaner elite, which still leaves me with the problem of what elites to use on my paragon and curse Nec.

2. How beneficial is disease here?
It's the nice condition I don't have going for me. I explain my problems with each of the Necromancer disease skills in my response to Marty above, so I think if I want it I need to spread it taking up two skills in my warrior bar. I guess that if I have enough minions causing bleeding I could drop the sever part and replace with Gash for deep wound and disease, though the paragon is already good at spreading deep wound with "Find Their Weakness"

3. What are the best elites for my Paragon and Curses Nec?
My main issue.

4. How important are barbs and Mark of Pain in a build of this type?
I took them out when I realized they only triggered on physical damage. Keep in mind that my only sources of physical damage are from my warrior, my paragon and the minions. Since I've now gone minion bomber, I rarely have a full flock. Should I include neither, both or just one, and if one then which? I'd either have to give up on some curses or healing to include them. How much physical do you need before these skills really do start paying off?

5. How much of a boost does GftE really have on spirits?
I understand spirits and anthem of envy, they use attack skills so the damage adds on. With GftE it causes criticals, which are maximum damage times a multiplier. Yet spirits don't seem to have a damage range, they just seem to do set damage. (For example a spirit of pain at lvl 15 does 30 flat damage every hit.) So it seems they are losing out on a big part of the bonus that comes from a crit. They still get the 1.4 multiplier though, which is nice. I'm just not as sure about this skill as I was before.

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
That is because you also brought along Shadow of Fear which counters your SS damage much more than your mesmers.
Thank you, I totally didn't think of that. As long as the opponents are attacking, I imagine it would still work well, but if I block their skills and then slow their attack I can see why it lost so much effectiveness.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
As for SoH, I would replace Dissonance in your rit with it since he has 2 energy management skills and you already have mesmers for interrupts.
Another thing I hadn't thought of. For a long time I never brought mesmers along, and dissonance served me well, but now I think I can replace it with something else.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Disease would backfire if you are fighting humans. Other than that, it is fine.
Hadn't thought of that possibility.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
I would replace your Agony on your rit bar with Ancestor's Rage which works great alongside warriors. Will test.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post

cataphract

cataphract

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2005

Ashford Abbey

Hey Mallyx [icU]

Mo/Me

I'd drop that RoJ hero completely unless you're vanquishing an Undead-heavy area. After that I'd edit the MM - he has way too few secondary profession skills. I'd put his points into Smiting and equip him with SoH, Smite Hex and Smite Condition. I'd drop Masochism too and equip Withering Aura. Although you do have Enfeebling Blood it's very likely you'll engage enemies while it's on cooldown or the hero will prioritize something else leaving you with no weakness on your target. And it's a nice, cheap cover enchantment too.

I asked my friend the Cereal Guy what he thought about your curses necro not having MoP and he was all like



In other words, you should be triggering Barbs and MoP very often. Use IAS, Sun and Moon Slash, Whirling Attack. You don't need disease.

Relyk

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

W/

Warriors should always have SoH if it's available. Best places to put it are a RoJ, Monk, SoS Rit, or SoGM Rit; they can all afford it. Put SoH on the SoGM, the attribute split goes 11+1+3, 10+1, 10. You can drop Signet of Creation for smite Hex, the hero is unlikely to run out of energy.

Run Pain of Disenchantment on N/Rt, even if you don't need enchantment removal, it's cheap and doesn't burn energy and it's there if you need it. A few people run BiP on heroes, but I find it pointless to bring. You can bring Blood Ritual if your unsure. Other options are IV and Ravenous Gaze. Ravenous Gaze is essential free damage for the hero. Speccing into Blood Magic means Blood Bond for redbarring yourself and minions or Strip Enchantment for enchantment removal when you need it with some spiking power.

You need Whirlwind Attack on your bar so you can abuse Splinter Weapon. Unless you're fixated on Dragon Slash, you don't need to be spamming SY! all the time. Feel free to try out 100b, Endurance Axe/Scythe, Earth Shaker, or DBS Hammer for various areas to feel them out. You can't go wrong with Whirlwind Attack on any bar though.

You will never need MoP/Barbs. MoP is pretty much reserved for 100b since you don't need it for many situations except spiking. Barbs is up to you, I find it just burns energy on enemies who will die anyways and SoH already there for you to kill individual foes.

I have a profound dislike for Paragons. They don't deal significant damage. You can stick Command shouts like Never Surrender, Fall Back, FtW, We Shall Return on a necro who manages energy much better or any hero that can afford it (with microing). Anthem of Envy is the only reason to use Paragon, basing a choice on a single skill is pretty hard to justify.

If you like sever artery and signet of infection, you can always use Fevered Dreams, works well for spreading cracked armor too.

AndrewSX

AndrewSX

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2010

Italy, Turin

Lake

E/

About nec hero carrying mop/barbs:
-barbs has 2 sec cast, on single target. unless you're going to face a single durable enemy (like boss) casting barbs is a waste of time. It should be dead too fast to have barbs worth. if not, there's something not working.
-mop...is always the same story. His power is too situational. it can vary from manly spike (thousands dmg in aoe in 1 sec) to ..nothing. And cause this depends on good balling/targeting of mobs, not always reliable(exp with heroes), in regular pve is generally better drop it and insert more dmg/buff stuff.....

Millenium Warriorr

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2010

Finland

Victory is a four letter word [quit]

W/

My main is also an warrior, playing him alot.
This is what i have been generally using for some time now and it seems to work on many places, any VQ's easy and pretty fast.

Me: General Earth Shaker build. Save Yourselves! for some heavy prot.

Gwen: Panic with some energy management and caster hater skills such as mistrust.

Norgu: Physic Instability with Clummsiness and Wandering Eye. Some Energy management is good here too.

Master of Whispers: Aura Of The Lich bomber with resto rit skills such as Life and mend body and soul, Spirit Light.

Talhkora: Prot/healing divided monk. Divert hexes, Aegis and some heals + shielding hands and shield of absortion.

Xandra: SoS rit with para shouts. Fall Back! to speed running. Cant Touch this for melees/touchers. Stand on your ground.

Razah: Spirit Support. Soul Twisting with boon of creation. Shelter,Displacement and Union. Of course with Splinter Weapons and Acestors Rage. +Earthbind

Flexible Can take like anything to this, have used Searing Flames spammer. Generally would take pure damage to this but some wards would help in certain areas too!
Also melee booster with orders/SoH/barbs/mop would help but i havent really seen that good idea. My own job is to keep mobs down most of the time and spam SY! Heros can easily overdamage them.

And also, my heros are runed/weaponed for their jobs. No idea does it work without runes.

For use, if you dont have minions yet, or facing hard group.
Always micromanage your razah to put spirits and xandra too. Flag Heros bit Back and cast shield of absortion+shielding hands+aegis and rush in to aggro. Then just...enjoy!

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Blood bond red-bars yourself, your minions, and it is also one of the few skills that heals your spirits.

The paragon damage tends to be unimpressive, he is mainly there as a support character. Besides Anthem of Envy, he can provide Gfte, fallback, stand your ground, never surrender, and Anthem of Disruption which also works with spirit attacks.

Anthem of Envy, Anthem of Disruption, Anthem of Weariness, and Crippling Anthem(elite) work with spirits (allies) as well as party members.

Gfte and fallback work with minions (allies) as well as party members.

Even with unimpressive damage, at least with IAS like Soldier's Fury, he makes much better use of Splinter Weapon than your typical caster. If you want a chance for deep wound, you can also equip him with vicious attack.

That said, I don't have a paragon hero in my party nowadays ever since I have mercs, it is mostly rits and mesmers.

KingCrab

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by cataphract View Post
I asked my friend the Cereal Guy what he thought about your curses necro not having MoP and he was all like
Very classy, I enjoyed that. When I vanqed Cantha and Elona I relied heavily on Barbs and Mark of Pain, but I also had a mass minions build with Blood of the Master going on. I'm also just using a minion bomber now, which means not maintaining the ten minions at any given time.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Relyk View Post
Warriors should always have SoH if it's available. Best places to put it are a RoJ, Monk, SoS Rit, or SoGM Rit; they can all afford it. Put SoH on the SoGM, the attribute split goes 11+1+3, 10+1, 10. You can drop Signet of Creation for smite Hex, the hero is unlikely to run out of energy.
I definitely thing SoGM is the place to put it. Many of my other characters are heavily taxed and if I take off Dissonance, I have far more energy than I can use on this character. Then again, it means I'm relying on my mesmers more for all interrupts and probably more importantly I have one less spirit shooting for SoGM to apply to. I'll run some checks to see how damage output is affected, or maybe I'll just try dissonance with SoH and see what happens.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Relyk View Post
Run Pain of Disenchantment on N/Rt, even if you don't need enchantment removal, it's cheap and doesn't burn energy and it's there if you need it.
It just seems like a waste of an elite to me since the mesmers can both remove enchantments and I could even use rip enchantment on this character.

Quote: Originally Posted by Relyk View Post A few people run BiP on heroes, but I find it pointless to bring. You can bring Blood Ritual if your unsure. Other options are IV and Ravenous Gaze. Ravenous Gaze is essential free damage for the hero. Speccing into Blood Magic means Blood Bond for redbarring yourself and minions or Strip Enchantment for enchantment removal when you need it with some spiking power. The idea of bringing BiP is cause I want a useful elite on this character. If I bring Blood Ritual then I'll still have the same problem I don't like the blood magic line at all aside from the energy granting spells. I've run a bunch of tests in Glint's challenge and BiP is really helping both my Death Magic Prot Nec and my Channeling Resto Rit. It isn't perfect, but it's a useful elite for this character. The only other options I can think of would involve switching out the heals to Monk heals for UA with maybe Dwayna's sorrow, or finding a Restoration elite that I like.

Quote: Originally Posted by Relyk View Post You need Whirlwind Attack on your bar so you can abuse Splinter Weapon. Unless you're fixated on Dragon Slash, you don't need to be spamming SY! all the time. Feel free to try out 100b, Endurance Axe/Scythe, Earth Shaker, or DBS Hammer for various areas to feel them out. You can't go wrong with Whirlwind Attack on any bar though. I should experiment more with other Warrior builds. I do like protecting the party with SY! as much as possible, but I switch over to 100b when I know there's going to be massive amounts of creatures. I should try Earthshaker since I have an armor set for hammer and knockdown all ready.

Quote: Originally Posted by Relyk View Post I have a profound dislike for Paragons. They don't deal significant damage. You can stick Command shouts like Never Surrender, Fall Back, FtW, We Shall Return on a necro who manages energy much better or any hero that can afford it (with microing). Anthem of Envy is the only reason to use Paragon, basing a choice on a single skill is pretty hard to justify. I dislike them in general, but I like the shouts GftE and Anthem of Envy with my massive amounts of spirits. The other shouts I could do without more. Also I think sometimes my channeler splinters the paragon alongside me. I've tried getting GftE and Anthem of Envy to work on other characters like a monk, but I just need too much adranaline.

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Quote: Originally Posted by AndrewSX View Post
About nec hero carrying mop/barbs:
-barbs has 2 sec cast, on single target. unless you're going to face a single durable enemy (like boss) casting barbs is a waste of time. It should be dead too fast to have barbs worth. if not, there's something not working.
-mop...is always the same story. His power is too situational. it can vary from manly spike (thousands dmg in aoe in 1 sec) to ..nothing. And cause this depends on good balling/targeting of mobs, not always reliable(exp with heroes), in regular pve is generally better drop it and insert more dmg/buff stuff..... Thanks, I'm pretty much feeling better about not bringing those skills now. The 2 second cast is indeed a killer and there's too much for my curse resto to do anyhow.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Blood bond red-bars yourself, your minions, and it is also one of the few skills that heals your spirits. Would that be counterproductive with minion bombing? It would keep them alive, so maybe run better with an Aura of the Lich mass minion build. I like the cheap cost.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
The paragon damage tends to be unimpressive, he is mainly there as a support character. Exactly. My paragon seems to be sticking around mostly to help spirits and minions dish out the damage. I don't value their attack skills or spear mastery at all (I still just keep spear mastery at 9 so I can use a spear.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
Even with unimpressive damage, at least with IAS like Soldier's Fury, he makes much better use of Splinter Weapon than your typical caster. If you want a chance for deep wound, you can also equip him with vicious attack. I've noticed my channeler giving splinter to my Paragon, and I do have soldier's at my elite right now. Maybe I'll watch to see how often both splinter and Soldier's are up at the same time and do some testing.

What do you think of "Find Their Weakness!" instead of vicious attack? It seems with vicious that the need for critical would hamper things too much. Plus I have a lot more points in command as it is than spear mastery.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daesu View Post
That said, I don't have a paragon hero in my party nowadays ever since I have mercs, it is mostly rits and mesmers. I haven't paid for the mercenary pack yet (and definitely haven't leveled any mesmers) though I might at some point for energy surge. I experimented with putting energy surge on my Paragon, but I thing the Domination skills work much better with 15 domination. Still need to do more testing. What do you think of a Paragon with half domination mes skills? It would allow me to keep up the Anthem of Envy and GftE.

Swingline

Swingline

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2010

Somewhere far away from you

The Mirror of Reason[SNOW]

W/

I suggest using the pvx wiki dragon slash build with SY. It's actually very good at keeping SY up 100% of the time even when FGJ is down on recharge and has good damage. make sure to bring steelfang slash and utilize it with brawling headbutt. For the last skill slot asuran scan or enduring harmony is a good investment.

For the curse necro I find PoD better than FoC. Might just be my preference but PoD is a god send when facing that rare enemy monk stacking prots. Also great armor ignoring damage.

I have always liked Ineptitude on my illusion Mesmer. I have noticed Gwen casts panic on the mid/backline while Norgu uses Ineptitude on the melee trying to kill my casters.

Xinrae's weapon is actually not that great of an elite when compared to other elites. Shelter and Prot spirit make it bleh, I use preservation and it fairs much better than you think with a MM.

Daesu

Daesu

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by KingCrab View Post
Would that be counterproductive with minion bombing? It would keep them alive, so maybe run better with an Aura of the Lich mass minion build. I like the cheap cost.
Not really, the healing is not enough to heal them so much so that it would be counter productive to bomb. Minions attack too slowly.

The healing is more beneficial to your party members who have IAS and your spirits from both your rits.

Quote:
What do you think of "Find Their Weakness!" instead of vicious attack? It seems with vicious that the need for critical would hamper things too much. Plus I have a lot more points in command as it is than spear mastery. A more definite deep wound with more energy cost and a longer recharge. Maybe it is better, I don't know, need to test it.

Quote:
I haven't paid for the mercenary pack yet (and definitely haven't leveled any mesmers) though I might at some point for energy surge. I experimented with putting energy surge on my Paragon, but I thing the Domination skills work much better with 15 domination. Still need to do more testing. What do you think of a Paragon with half domination mes skills? It would allow me to keep up the Anthem of Envy and GftE. I think it is easier for your mesmers to run some paragon skills than the other way around.

The paragon skills that I brought with mesmers are, fallback, stand your ground, and never surrender. I may replace the last one, I am still testing my build.